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The increasingly heavy investment of "face" in the UK Marine capture situation is unquestionably adding to the danger of an inadvertent outbreak of open hostilities. One side or the other is going to be forced to surrender some of its pride if a more deadly confrontation is going to be averted. And there is no indication that the Bush administration is doing anything other than encouraging British recalcitrance.

Unless one’s basic intention is to provoke a hostile action to which the US and UK could “retaliate,” getting involved in a tit-for-tat contest with the Iranians is a foolish and reckless game, for it may not prove possible to avoid escalation and loss of control. And we seem to be well on our way there. If one calls Iran "evil,” arrests its diplomats, accuses it of promoting terrorism and unlawful capture, one can be certain that the Iranians will retaliate and raise the stakes in the process.

That is how the game of tit-for-tat is played in that part of the worl…

Have a bit of a moan about having a flat week/month and my resulting day yesterday was a shocker... talk about a day that showed me a bad time.Perhaps my grey mindset lead to me stupidly flooding the bathroom, and putting me in the way of rain on and off all day, getting nicely wet and indicating perhaps the week/month hadn't been too shabby at all. Serves ya right Bob ya moany old git. It was a good day of rain here, been a while since we'd seen showers like that. Other than getting a bit wet myself it was all good. Anyone find it ironic that the first Guantanamo Bay court appearence was by an Australian, a one time Kangaroo skinner to boot... a roo in a Kangaroo court. It'd be bloody funny if the whole situation wasn't so tragic and infuriating.... More irony in Britian crying wolf over her soldiers currently being detained by the Iranians, if these people hadn't trespassed into Iranian waters Britian should show the Iranians and the world the proof - no need to dra…

Where the days seem to drag, the mind isn't focused as it might be, the weather is typically Auckland, I am constantly tired and well I seem to be in a funk.

I watched a few news bulletins last night and realised where-ever one looks in todays wired world the news all seems bad, of course this is what the media does, it tells us stories of tragedy, of human lives lost, of corruption, of natural disasters... its not a feel good time.

Each channels new service blurs into another, each talking head presents the news in a similar fashion, even the diversions aren't what they could be.

It is of course March, summer is gone, winter is coming... we don't really have a autumn in Auckland, one day the leaves will start falling and a few days later they will be gone, none of the glory and beauty of watching leaves turn golden then fall here.

There's a bridge you can drive across as you enter Wanaka down south, crossing this …

Your results:You are SupermanSuperman75%You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.Spider-Man70%Green Lantern60%Batman55%Catwoman55%Robin52%Iron Man50%Hulk35%Supergirl32%The Flash25%Wonder Woman22%

- I couldn't help but wonder what was going through Tony Blair's head as he condemed Iran's capture of the British servicemen... I'm no body language expert nor proponent but didn't he look like he was lying or something? Something didn't seem right in my mid, and its not like Mr Blair isn't a very accomplished public speaker now is it.

Is this the spark that may inflame things to the point of a US attack on Iran?

The security council's sanctions on Iran - are we about to witness a similar sanctions regime akin to that which is responsible for at least 500,000 deaths in Iraq pre invasion?

and of course as per this time last year, will we actually see a attack on Iran - I hope not but the time is right now, for such a event...

Its disgusting the higher value we place on certain nationalities peoples lives

- the new allegations of sexual misadventures by the same people now serving time for rape

At some point in the future, earlier rather than later if the majors capitulate and agree to live in the present as opposed to the 1990s, music acquisition on the Net will be monetized. A great deal of revenue will be generated, but it will be distributed amongst a plethora of providers/acts.

The major labels, employing a push mentality, focused on ever-fewer records in an attempt to create blockbusters. Figuring their lock on exhibition and distribution would help them succeed. To get heard you had to be on terrestrial radio. To get bought you had to be in Best Buy. And the majors controlled those gatekeepers, indies were frozen out, therefore most of the public was unaware of other offerings in the marketplace, to the degree they existed.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 signed the death warrant for terrestrial radio. Consolidating, just like the major labels, radio aired fewer records and more commercials. A formula that might work in Bizarroworld, but was a recipe for disaster in …

In January 2007 Cabinet Minister Jim Anderton, in an interview about the Bush Administration’s decision to send 20,000 more troops to Iraq, with Christchurch's newspaper The Press, compared the occupation of Iraq with America's Vietnam 'fiasco'. He then added:

"One wonders whether the lessons I would have expected to be learnt from that fiasco have been learnt in any way at all. It is literally years since Mr Bush landed on an aircraft carrier and announced the war was over. I don't know whether he remembers that."

A fair comment from a Minister from a government that at election time proudly reminds the public that it kept out of the Iraq invasion one would think. Unfortunately not. Foreign Minister Winston Peters even made a special press release from the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in the Philippines to strongly condemn Anderton. According to Peters "Jim Anderton's comments about Un…

This Isn't The New Business Model We Were Hoping The RIAA Would AdoptLately, the RIAA has been on a high-profile campaign to get college students that the RIAA believes have been involved in illegal file trading to settle lawsuits against them at a "discount". As part of this strategy, the company has tried to enlist universities to help them identify and turn over the names of offending students. But it's heartening to see that some universities aren't spinelessly acquiescing to the RIAA's demands. The University of Wisconsin has told the RIAA that it has no obligation to rat its students out unless it's compelled to do so by a subpoena. Meanwhile, the University of Nebraska has told the RIAA that it can't help them identify many of the students accused of file trading. The school's system changes a computer's IP address each time its turned on, and it only keeps this information for month. After that month, the school has no way of associati…

I love the Clean but don't want to see my heroes in a filler piece for the masses... not a bad piece by breakfast TV standards but its always cringeful to see people interview others whom they know nothing about

*puts Great Unwashed Collection back on shelf for the day and picks up Pin Group retrospective compilation on Stiltbreeze in its place*

and whilst in rant mode, fuck you blogger or whatever it is that makes me have to re-edit every damn post to get the spacing right.... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr twice for this one short post, argh

I'm in lazy mode today, a quick copy and paste of someone elses text shall fill the void that is my daily update.

For many whom pop by the following is nothing new, in fact its embarrassingly old talk, but for many whom are new to this internet lark, this digital music lark, this downloading lark, this poor chaps experience highlights so much about why the music industry resembles a headless chicken.

As a 40 year old male with a long-standing passion for "all things music," I've spent a bundle on my collection. In college most of my waking hours were spent wandering around record stores, swap meets and record conventions, much to the dismay of the women I was ostensibly dating. Then again, the fact that I also worked as a DJ at the radio station and hung out with obsessive record collector types probably didn't help matters in the romance department.

BAGHDAD — Saddam Hussein's former deputy was hanged before dawn Tuesday, the fourth man to be executed in the killings of 148 Shiites following a 1982 assassination attempt against the former leader in the town of Dujail.

Taha Yassin Ramadan, who was Mr. Hussein's vice-president when the regime was ousted, went to the gallows on the fourth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq.

Bassam al-Hassani, an adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said the execution went smoothly, although Ramadan appeared frightened and recited the two shahadahs — a declaration of faith repeated by Muslims — “There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his Prophet.”

Mr. al-Hassani said precautions were taken to prevent a repeat of what happened to Mr. Hussein's half brother and co-defendant Barzan Ibrahim, who was inadvertently decapitated on the gallows during his January execution.Associated Press

Since the invasion of Iraq by the Coalition of the Willing Four years of hell on earth for the Iraqi people Four years of lies, deception and criminal activity from the regime in the whitehouse Four years of needless death and mayhem Four years!!!!

My first real introduction to club culture outside of New Zealand was at the tail end of rave, breakbeat culture was morphing into jungle and the big outdoor parties that circled London were drawing to a close, ecstasy was twenty five quid a pop.

It was a exciting time and I was fortunate for it to cross my path whilst doing my OE (Overseas experience).

Anyways, I found this site and spent a highly enjoyable hour there on Friday afternoon listening to many of the tracks I remember with fondness from days gone by. Please note many of the tracks are no longer there to play, which is a bummer but there are still plenty to …

Why do TV ads sound louder and more urgent than the programmes? Because they’re heavily compressed. It’s a process that’s also affecting the music we listen to.

It takes only a modest grasp of the technology to realise that the digital files we download from the internet or rip from our own compact discs are inferior in quality to CD sound itself. Such is the reality of the “lossy” compression that reduces the sound files to a manageable size. Information is lost from the recording, and with it, sharpness and dynamic range.

In most cases this doesn’t matter too much, especially if the music is played on small devices (on the other hand, listen to a 128k MP3 file on a high-quality system, against the same track from a CD – you might be shocked). And if we want real range and richness we can always just buy the CD.

Or can we?

I’m indebted to Chris Hart, the founder of Real Groovy Records, for alerting me to a trend that is a hot topic in audiophile circles: the cru…

Not the nicest of days today, I was thinking about heading off the Grey Lynn Park to attend the Red Bull Daylight Savings gig with the Recloose Band, Shapeshifter and a few others but due to it not being a lovely day I'll pass on that action.

1. The iPodAfter you've got an iPod, why do you need a CD?CDs are voluminous, not only in size, but content. They take up too much space with too much music you don't want to hear. Better off to cherry-pick, just put what you WANT to hear on an iPod. Which holds the equivalent of more CD booklets than you can pack in a suitcase.

As for the sound...

Sure, CDs sound better than MP3s, but CDs sound like shit compared to vinyl. They're cold, they're brittle... Better to hear a facsimile rather than the tinny, compressed, real thing.

2. Radio

The problem facing the sellers of recorded music is more one of EXPOSURE than theft.Where do you hear the new music? Terrestrial radio may be the dominant format, but it has burned the trust it had with the listener. Everybody now knows radio is about commercials. People used to think the spots were an intrusion, now they think the MUSIC is an intrusion. The deejays are jive, what they play doesn'…

Me, I would be surprised if by day three I hadn't admitted to pretty much anything and everything...

Perhaps this man is guilty... but can we ever know for sure due to the means no doubt employed to get this mans confessions (and he's claiming a lot), perhaps like other long time US Detainees the chaps simply lost his mind...

One thing that is par for the course is the timing... its great timing for the Bush regime.

The Iranian-Syrian-US-Iraqi talks in Baghdad at the weekend produced this from Mr Fisk

But old habits die hard. During Saturday's talks, Mr Satterfield pointed to hisbriefcase, claiming it contained documents that proved Iran was arming Shiamilitias in Iraq, a remark that earned him a stinging rebuke from the Iranianenvoy. "Your accusations are merely a cover for your failures in Iraq," Mr Aragchi replied.

First cold night of the year... yep winter its now a reality on its way, time to dust off the snowboots

The way reality is well weirder than fiction, Orwells 1984, Huxley’s Brave New World, Kafka’s The Trial, turn off the box and read these books, you may well freak out at the similarities to our world...

What good can come of our presence in that land - other than on the international front where we can be seen to be part of the team by our 'allies' and traditional trade partners

We're being wishy washy, just so we don't have trade doors slammed in our face I would wager

Understandable as that is, its still the wrong direction to be headed IMHO

I wish Helen Clark was not going to visit Bush, sure we need to engage with this nation but a meeting between leaders with a large list of things that can't be discussed is a waste of her time.. oh well at least Winston isn't doing the meet on our behalf.... sheesh he's a liability

I was planning to write about the sad and continuing demise of the NZ music industry (in the traditional sense) and music industry in general, I have a lot of thoughts on this, some reflect those of my peers around the globe and some don't

One can't help but feel a sense of deja vu with all the Washington rhetoric being aimed at Iran...

One can't help but worry that there is a very real chance we'll see nuclear weapons used in my lifetime. One can't help but be deeply concerned at all of this as I live close to one of the US's main allies, a country that has shown itself at the leadership level to be morally corrupt and a wanna be mini US to boot. One can't help but worry about the pressure our government will face from its closest neighbour and that big bully the US to join them in the plight to secure the middle east's resources for themselves... will they share with us if we do join them? yeah right I can't help but feel that the west's time of liberalism is coming to a end. I hope like hell I don't see the sorts of things one can imagine is coming in my lifetime. I am not holding my breath, positive thinking is not enough. Bob changes blog overnight to pro US sentiment and lots of…

I'd never been to the Speedawy before. So it was quite an adventure to be heading out to Waikaraka Speedway with Nat & Wayde to watch cars go round and round.

I didn't really expect to enjoy the racing, as I am not a car guy nor do I enjoy racing, of any sort. I am up for trying different things and the thought of a bad hot dog, good company and some people watching was all to much to pass up.

Waikaraka Speedway was nothing flash, a simple and small (it seemed) course, a stand with a smallish crowd and the course flanked by grass, which is where we sat.

We arrived as a race was in progess and as we wandered around the track to find a spot to sit the cars were, um, roaring by. Loud and all very carish and then we got a dose of the track as they flew round the corner tossing mud everywhere. The mud explained why at one of the corners all the people sitting there had blankets and the like to cover themselves - I had originally thought it was for warmth, but no it was cause of th…

I wnet to a friends bithday drinks last night - happy birthday Renee! - which was very pleasant, Wayne Anderson sung happy birthday to Ren and a bunch of us chatted and drank as ya do.

I bailed for a time to go and check out a band competition I was obligated to go to, which was horrific, worst beer ever and a very hot and muggy venue, a competition that was 'made' for TV and thus the event whilst I was there was stop/start as presenters got their lines right and the crowd was prompted to do that screaming thing ya see on the telly.

Now I don't get why people scream at these things or in general, I've been to hundreds if not thousands of gigs in my time and not once I am aware of there being screaming (well in that yoff TV kinda way). I mean I was at a band competition, why would people scream - except at perhaps them that aren't very good - bands that is.

Being on a VIP list and getting free booze all night was not an incentive to stay any longer than the one and a h…

AMY GOODMAN: Well, for the rest of the hour, we’ll hear General Wesley Clark in his own words on the possibility of a US attack on Iran; the impeachment of President Bush; the use of cluster bombs; the bombing of Radio Television Serbia during the Kosovo War under his command; and much more. I interviewed General Clark on Tuesday at the 92nd Street Y in New York.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, let’s talk about Iran. You have a whole website devoted to stopping war.

GEN. WESLEY CLARK: Www.stopiranwar.com.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you see a replay in what happened in the lead-up to the war with Iraq -- the allegations of the weapons of mass destruction, the media leaping onto the bandwagon?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK: Well, in a way. But, you know, history doesn’t repeat itself exactly twice. What I did warn about when I testified in front of Congress in 2002, I said if you want to worry about a state, it shouldn’t be Iraq, it should be Iran. But this government, our administration, wanted to worry about Iraq, not Iran.

A familiar means of denying a reality is to refuse to use the words that describe that reality. A common form of propaganda is to keep reality from being described.

"The elimination of Natanz would be a major setback for Iran's nuclear ambitions, but the conventional weapons in the American arsenal could not insure the destruction of facilities under seventy-five feet of earth and rock, especially if they are reinforced with concrete."-Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker, April 17, 2006 "The second concern is that if an underground laboratory is deeply buried, that can also confound conventional weapons. But the depth of the Natanz facility - reports place the ceiling roughly 30 feet underground - is not prohibitive. The American GBU-28 weapon - the so-called bunker buster - can pierce about 23 feet of concrete and 100 feet of soil. Unless the cover over the Natanz lab is almost entirely rock, bunker busters should be able to reach it. That said, some chanc…